By Ed Bearss

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – February 24, 2016 Dear Civil War Enthusiasts, I thought it was a good time to look back on our year, and pass out kudos for work well done, and look forward to the balance of this year. As far as programs, we have living legend Ed Bearss appearing in March. His memory is incredible at ninety-three plus years, and as he often states, “If I am still alive, I'll be there.” While we are trying to cover new territory on the Civil War, Ed will give us an in-depth look at Vicksburg. In April and May, we have local speakers followed by modestly priced bus trips to the subjects locations. We finish up the year in July with an extra, exciting presentation by prize-winning bestselling author Ralph Peters at Magnolia Hall in Sun City. Peters is also a journalist/commentator and strategic analyst. His Civil War novels are brutally realistic. What a terrific year it has been. Since September, we have had an unusual presentation of Civil War Diaries, Letters, and Journals by the women of the Sun City Theater Group with quilts displayed, followed by an ice cream social. Professor Mary DeCredico from the Naval Academy spoke in October. In November, we had a definitive look at the Battle of Port Royal with a bus and boat trip to the Battle sites. January and February saw our annual visits by Bud Robertson and Jack Davis. Both of these distinguished speakers (and Ed Bearss) forgo their regular fees and minimize their expenses in support of the LCWRT. Financially we are in excellent shape. The Executive Board is conservative in their approach to spending your hard earned dues. Several programs are more expensive, but we think are worthy. We've held the line on raising dues for several years and have still brought you outstanding programs. This year we presented nine great presentations at an average cost of $2.80 per meeting. We'll continue to seek new and innovative ways to bring you great programs such as the grant we received from the S.C. Humanities for our River’s Bridge Tour. Our Keller Family Scholarship is well on the way to being fully funded for this year. The two raffles held recently were a tremendous help. We will only have raffles when there is an outstanding book to warrant it. Jack Davis donated his honorarium that would normally go to the Civil War Trust to the Scholarship. Caroline recently reported that we have offered our scholarship to 21 high schools in Beaufort and Jasper counties. What a wonderful program and a great way for people to get to know us. Finally, our entire staff of volunteers has done an excellent job. Whether it is Caroline’s expanded Minie Ball Gazette or Tom McNamara’s Wednesday night challenge of getting into the building setting up and closing down; or John Kemp’s fantastic programs, I am eternally grateful. These people are great, but they need help. Think about volunteering. Regards, Robert Waite President, LCWRT, Inc. Edwin Cole Bearss A legendary career employee of the U.S. National Park Service. Born on 26, 1923, in Billings, Montana Bearss grew up on the rugged family cattle ranch, the "E Bar S," near Sarpy, Mont., through the depths of the Great Depression. His father, a Marine in WWI, read accounts of military campaigns to young Ed and his brother. Ed's lifelong interest in military history was jump-started by a biography of the dashing Confederate Cavalry General J.E.B. Stuart by John Thomason. Bearss named many of the ranch animals after famous generals and battles; his favorite milk cow was "Antietam." Bearss graduated from high school in May 1941 and hitchhiked around the United States, visiting his first Civil War battlefields. He joined the Marine Corps in April 1942 and served with the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion at Guadalcanal. In January 1944, Ed was severely wounded at "Suicide Creek" Cape Gloucester, New Britain by Japanese machine gun fire. Evacuated to California, Ed spent 26 months recovering in various hospitals. He used the G.I. Bill to finance his education at Georgetown University, from which he obtained a B.S. degree in Foreign Service Studies in 1949. He worked for three years in the U.S. Navy Hydro graphic Office in Maryland and used his spare time to visit numerous Civil War battlefields in the East. Receiving his M.A. in history from Indiana University in 1955, he wrote his thesis on Irish-born Confederate Major General Patrick R. Cleburne killed in the Battle of Franklin (Nov. 30, 1864). Bearss worked as a historian at Vicksburg National Military Park, Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was at Vicksburg that he met his wife, Margie Riddle Bearss (1925-2006), also a Civil War historian; they were married on July 30, 1958. They first lived in the Leila Luckett House in Vicksburg formerly occupied by then- Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's soldiers in 1863, and eventually had three children. At Vicksburg, Bearss did the research leading him and two friends to the long-lost Union ironclad gunboat U.S.S. Cairo. The Cairo was torpedoed and sunk on December 12, 1862. The gunboat spent 100 years on the Yazoo River well preserved in mud. It was raised on December 12, 1964, and is on exhibit near the Vicksburg National Cemetery. He has written over 18 Civil War books including Hardluck Ironclad: The Sinking and the Salvage of the Cairo. He appeared in The Civil War, PBS series by Ken Burns, Civil War Journal, A & E Network, Civil War Combat, History Channel and the Smithsonian's Great Battles of the Civil War, TLC. He has also edited many other books and written many Civil War articles for various magazines and periodicals. His 2007 book Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War, is illustrated with detailed maps and archival images with a unique narrative of the War's most critical battles. The informative book feels like you are walking in the battlefields and getting a clear description of the action and fascinating details about the men. He has won a huge, devoted following with his battlefield tours and soliloquies about the heroes, scoundrels, and little-known moments of the conflict that still fascinates America. Antietam, Shiloh, Gettysburg, rich with human interest and colorful details learned from a lifetime of study His encyclopedic knowledge of military affairs extends well beyond the Civil War, covering the American Revolution, War of 1812, Indian Wars and WWI and WWII. Ed Bearss is known by many as the greatest living Civil War historian and a true American icon. He was Chief Historian of the National Park Service from 1981 to 1994. After his retirement, he received the title Chief Historian Emeritus, which he holds to this day. Aboard the Gunboat Cairo Edwin C. Bearss - “Hardluck Ironclad!” The Choctaw Indians called the Yazoo the “River of Death,” before the Confederates infested it with “secret weapons.” (The Choctaws were originally from the southeastern states of Mississippi, Louisiana, or Alabama. The River was also named by French explorer La Salle in 1682 as “Riviere des Yazous” about the Yazoo tribe living near the River's mouth at the confluence with the Mississippi “the Father of Waters”- a 2,340- mile river. The River is considered to mark the southern boundary of what is called the Mississippi Delta, broad floodplain that was cultivated for cotton plantations before the War. The South relied on the River as one of its major means of commerce and communication.) On the bleak, overcast morning of Dec. 12, 1862, the river proved true to its name. It claimed as its victim the Union Ironclad River City-class ironclad gunboat U.S.S. Cairo, the first warship ever sunk by electrically activated torpedoes (now considered an underwater mine) on her rendezvous with destiny on the Yazoo. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, during the winter of 1863 spent attempting to take the strategic river port city of Vicksburg, Miss. an important town high above the Mississippi River, Grant and his Army of the Tennessee had been trying to seize the strategic Confederate river fortress of Vicksburg. It was all but impregnable. A Confederate cannon aimed at the River from the heights controlled all river traffic. Direct assault from the River was impossible because of the steep, well-defended heights. The Union boats could not control the River until Vicksburg, was neutralized. The Rebels counter moves and some of the most pernicious terrain in the entire Western theatre resisted the previous attempts. The day dawned cold and cloudy on Dec. 12, 1862. The twisting Yazoo was then nearing flood stages as the Cairo with her 22-foot paddlewheel nosed her way up the Yazoo north of Vicksburg. She triggered two Confederate demijohn mines. Within minutes, the 512-ton ironclad had sunk six fathoms to the muddy bottom with no loss of life. “Two sudden explosions in quick succession occurred, one close to my port quarter, the other apparently under my port bow – the latter so severe as to raise the guns under it some distance from the deck. She commenced to fill so rapidly that in two or three minutes the water was over her forecastle. The Cairo sunk . minutes after the explosion, going totally out of sight, except the top of the chimneys . though some half a dozen men were injured, no lives were lost. There was perfect discipline.” - Capt. Lt. Com. Thos. O. Selfridge. Eventually, the military forgot the Cairo's exact location. Over the decades, however, during periods when the Yazoo's waters were particularly low, fishermen and others working on the river reported seeing what they believe to be sections of the ironclads' superstructure.

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